EVENING. Health.

Women Living In Fear

December 27, 1994|By Maryanne George, Knight-Ridder/Tribune.

For years Pat Ryan walked the wooded pathways meandering through her west side Ann Arbor, Mich. neighborhood. But these days Ryan avoids the treasured greenbelts. Her daughter, Justine Burlingame, 26, a University of Michigan student, is learning to drive because she is afraid to walk around her neighborhood or to classes, although their home is less than two miles from campus.

And since that horrible day in September in 1992, when she held her neighbor, raped and bleeding, in her arms, Helen doesn't walk anywhere alone. She asked that her name not be used to protect the neighbor.

Life has changed dramatically for thousands of women in Ann Arbor since police, citing DNA testing and the similarity in attacks, announced in May that a serial rapist was responsible for the murder of 32-year-old Christine Gailbreath, three rapes and seven assaults on the city's west side since February 1992. Police have since attributed another rape, in October, to the serial rapist.

Sales of Mace and pepper sprays have doubled at one Ann Arbor store. Requests to Ann Arbor police for self-defense classes have risen dramatically, according to Detective Jerry Wright, director of the department's crime prevention program.

Men regularly accompany female colleagues to their cars after work, and requests for escort services on the campus have tripled. The city's parking structures also have begun offering an escort service.

Women are afraid, but they also are angry that their personal freedom is restricted.

The current level of fear was ratcheted up several notches on Oct. 13, when a 41-year-old woman was raped and beaten outside Community High School in downtown Ann Arbor. Police believe she also was a victim of the serial rapist, although DNA testing is not complete, bringing the total of assaults by the man to 12.

That same month, police also announced that a man who abducted an 18-year-old University of Michigan student from a church and threatened to rape her may be responsible for four other similar attacks since 1990.

Police have formed a second task force to investigate those attacks.

Ann Arbor Sgt. Phil Scheel said community involvement in the case is at an all-time high. The department has received 1,000 tips in the case identifying about 500 suspects. Half of the suspects have been cleared; 100 of them gave blood samples for DNA testing.

Community businesses have raised a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspect.

Scheel said all of the assaults have been taken seriously. However, because the suspect knocked the rape victims out and hit the others from behind, it has been difficult to develop detailed information about him. Police know only that he is a black male.

Vickie Frederick-Toure, children's program coordinator for Washtenaw County's Domestic Violence Project, worries about the safety of her 14-year-old daughter, Ebonii Frederick-Pettway, and herself.

Frederick-Toure, who is black, said the issue of the suspect's race is overshadowed by the larger threat of violence against women: "Just because he's targeting white women now is no guarantee he will not target a woman of color next time.

"If someone is committing rapes, no matter what color he is, he should be pursued and caught," she said. "Unfortunately, we live in a society where black men are targeted. But my primary feeling is that this is an issue of violence against women."

According to FBI and Bureau of Justice statistics, between 102,000 and 130,000 women report a rape to police in this country annually. But FBI statistics also show that only 10 percent of rapes are reported to police.

A 1993 Senate Judiciary Committee study found that 98 percent of women who report rapes to police will never see their attacker apprehended, convicted and incarcerated. Over half of rape prosecutions result in either a dismissal or an acquittal. Almost half of convicted rapists are sentenced to less than one year behind bars.

Some women, such as Mary Valerie, have decided to fight back-literally and with knowledge. Valerie, 38, a fitness instructor, teaches her aerobics students how to fend off an attacker with shouts and body blocks. Ann Arbor, which has been a pioneer in other social issues such as domestic violence, has formed a Commission on Increasing Safety for Women.

"We need to make a commitment like putting a man on the moon to make this city safe for women," Ryan said.